The Female Factor: Making women’s health count – and what it means for you

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They argue that censoring content about normal and natural bodily functions plays into the shame that has long plagued how people learn about the female body and hormone cycle. That can hinder how people with uteruses advocate for their bodies in healthcare settings, including obtaining care for misunderstood and underdiagnosed conditions like endometriosis. What's the range? Cause my sense is there's a big variation because I get the sense some people, this is really quite crippling and other people, it seems like this is quite low. But again, that's very anecdotal. What's really going on? Hazel?

But if you find that exercise is the last thing that you wanna do, or that doing something high in intensity is something that would make you feel worse. Low intensity exercise in particular. Yoga, there's a lot of trials around yoga and the benefit in menstrual symptoms and also PMS, and that's likely because. That’s why it’s so important to get to know our bodies, the conditions that can affect women and how to spot and manage them. Explain how that varies through the phases that you've just described. How does that actually feel? what are people experiencing, and I guess not just our top class Olympic athletes. Probably not many listeners right now who are going to be competing in the next Olympics, but a lot of people who either go through this or everybody will know people who are, and I think would love to understand that better.Hazel Wallace: Yeah, so over 90% of women report. Experiencing premenstrual symptoms, and there are over 150 of them from bloating to low mood to irritability, gut symptoms, headache, breast tenderness. The list is endless, but you're right in saying there's a spectrum of how women experience this and the terminology's really important, so while over 90% of women experience premenstrual symptoms, a smaller percentage, about 20 to 40% experience, premenstrual syndrome. This is where the symptoms are so debilitating that they interfere with day-to-day quality of life, and we see this pattern emerge. One to two weeks before the next period, typically a week before, and it should end or get better when your period starts. Dr Hazel Wallace founded her platform The Food Medic, an educational blog and podcast about diet and health. Jonathan Wolf: All right. All yeses so far. Can the food that women eat affect how they feel throughout their menstrual cycle? Yeah. And like it would be completely cut off, but that's not at all the picture that you're painting.

For years and years, we've excluded women and assume that we are exactly the same in terms of physiology, how we present with conditions, how we respond to treatments, and it's very much a different story. Gut issues are quite common, so thinking about potentially how you might need to adjust what you eat. And then I think at the end, we talked about intermittent fasting where you're quite cautious and it sounds like you're mainly cautious about people eating enough calories, enough food, so it can potentially work, but don't just assume that this is this wonder solution actually, it sounds like you, you're concerned there might even be some issues here. Hazel Wallace: Absolutely. It's interesting because yoga seems to be the one practice that has been really well researched when it comes to p m s and menstrual symptoms. And I think it was Matthew Walker who said that this is like emotional first aid. So it's really important for how we feel in our emotional wellbeing. And if we get less of it, So if we've had a bad night's sleep, we tend to feel a bit more groggy, a bit more irritable, maybe a bit more emotional the next day, and we see that drop in that REM sleep in that lal phase. We're joined by Hazel Wallace. She's a medical doctor, nutritionist, and author of The Female Factor here to give us an education on the menstrual cycle. In this episode, we'll learn how the cycle affects almost every aspect of the body from heart health and sleep to metabolism and even the microbiome.

Jonathan Wolf: And so can you see that difference if you were a, I'm guessing probably not for the average person in the street, maybe, but if you are a, you know, sort of top end athlete, can you see differences in performance, different points in the cycle? Hazel Wallace: So it's beneficial for a cardiovascular fitness and also in the high hormone phase in the menstrual cycle when estrogen is high, just before ovulation. We do see that as well. There may be some benefits to cardiovascular fitness, for example, for endurance sports.

Jonathan Wolf: we actually had a lot of questions around that, from our members in advance. I definitely want to dig into this during this episode. Jonathan Wolf: Because the estrogen is helping your, basically, without it, these, it's worse. Is it? These arteries are no longer able to be as flexible, Jonathan Wolf: And tell me a bit more about it because I think, again, that's one of those things that I'm definitely aware exists and I'm treading carefully cause my wife will definitely be listening to this. Again, I think something that's really not talked about very much. When would you expect this to start? What do most people experience? The male body has always been the default body in clinical medicine, making the assumption that women are just smaller versions of men. This could not be more wrong,’ Dr Wallace says. We also tend to suffer with conditions that will keep you awake, so, Women are twice as likely to experience anxiety and depression in their lifetime experience. Things like overactive bladder, so having to wake up in the night to go for a whee and heartburn or reflux is also more common as a general rule, although it varies from household to household.MORE : From fantasy and romcoms to straight up smut – the books that are getting women to the finish Hazel Wallace: There was a research paper done on athletes, female athletes taking part in the last Olympics, and they were asked if they could choose any day in their cycle. To perform, to do their final event, what day would it be or where in their cycle. And majority of athletes said just after their period, and that is that high estrogen phase where we have seen from the research that there tends to be higher muscle building, potential, better mood, higher motivation levels, and a small increase in performance. So really to be doing the best research, we should be taking urine tests, blood tests as well, to find out where women are at the cycle. And for researchers, that's a huge inconvenience, a huge expense, and it's just easier not to do the research. So there needs to be a bigger drive there and. Like you, you mentioned it may change how we, how women respond to treatments, how women present to hospital with different conditions. It's not a great place to be. And actually eating this sort of really gut healthy diet that, you talked about, can potentially really reduce that level of inflammation and therefore reduce your symptoms, make you feel better, presumably be good for your long-term health. And this is all the classic sort of high fiber plant led diet.